The present invention relates to an operation terminal and a remote operation system for a robot for facilitating the restoring operation of the robot.
Since a robot is configured as a system within an automatic production line by a user or a system manufacture after shipped from a factory, the setting condition (hereinafter called parameters) of the robot itself is surely optimized. These parameters of the robot operate in cooperation from one another. Thus, when a part of the parameters is modified or changed, an unexpected trouble may be caused. When a trouble is caused in the user side due to the parameter setting, the user determines the cause of the trouble while confirming the parameters of the robot and the parameters of a controller for the robot. In the case where the user can not determine or specify the cause, the user writes parameters relating to the contents of the trouble on a memo paper etc., then contacts with the robot manufacture or the service company of the robot by telephone, facsimile or the like and inquires about the cause of the trouble and the method of avoiding the trouble.
However, in recent years, the number of the parameters of a robot has been increased due to the progress of the technology of the robot. Thus, it has been difficult for a general user to accurately determine the parameter information relating to the trouble of a robot and contacts with the robot manufacture or the service company of the robot. Further, since a service staff of the robot manufacture or the service company can not directly look at the robot or the controller thereof (including the parameters thereof), it is difficult for the service staff to determine the cause of the trouble based on the information from the user.
Accordingly, much time is wasted in order to determine the cause of the trouble since it is required for the user and the service staff to contact to each other by telephone or facsimile for many times. Further, when the cause of the trouble can not be determined by the aforesaid method, since it is required to send the service staff to the user side, it takes further time for the staff to move to the user side. In particular, when the user locates at a remote place, there arises a problem that the production efficiency is degraded due to the stop of the robot for a long time and the service fee such as transportation expense becomes large.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a conventional robot control system shown in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 10-29181, for example, which proposes to eliminate the trouble of a robot without using means such as aforesaid telephone, facsimile or the like.
In the figure, a reference numeral 1 depicts a robot, 30 a controller for controlling the robot 1, and 20 a remote operation terminal for remotely operating the controller 30. The controller 30 includes a main storage device 32, an auxiliary storage device 37 and a control unit 38 for controlling the main storage device 32 and the auxiliary storage device 37.
The main storage device 32 stores parameter data, that is, various kinds of information for managing the controller 30. The auxiliary storage device 37 stores the parameter data as backup data. The control unit 38 receives work instruction data for instructing a work to be executed by the robot 1 from the remote operation terminal 20, then sends the work instruction data thus received to the robot 1, then receives history data representing the result of the work executed by the robot in accordance with the work instruction data, and sends the history data thus received to the remote operation terminal 20.
The remote operation terminal 20 collects the parameter data stored in the main storage device 32 and the auxiliary storage device 37 from these storage devices 32 and 37 periodically and stores in a terminal memory 20a of the remote operation terminal 20. That is, in this robot control system, the remote operation terminal 20 performs the backup processing in preparation for the case where the parameter data stored in the main storage device 32 and the auxiliary storage device 37 within the controller becomes failure.
Then, the operation of the robot control system will be explained.
First, when the remote operation terminal 20 sends the work instruction data to the controller 30, the work instruction data is sent to the robot 1 through the control unit 38. The robot 1 performs the work in accordance with the work instruction data, then generates the history data representing the result of the work executed by the robot 1 and sends the history data to the control unit 38.
At the time where the robot control system is initially introduced or a periodical term has lapsed after the initial introduction of the robot control system, the parameter data stored in the main storage device 32 is sent to the terminal memory 20a and stored therein. When the robot 1 generates the history data based on the work instruction data, the parameter of the main storage device 32 is updated and the parameter data of the auxiliary storage device 37 is updated. Further, the history data thus generated is sent to the terminal memory 20a and stored therein.
In the case where the trouble of the robot 1 is caused due to the failure of the main storage device 32 or the auxiliary storage device 37 or due to the erroneous setting of the parameters stored therein, the parameter data in the normal state stored in the terminal memory 20a of the remote operation terminal 20 is determined based on the history data, then the parameter data thus determined is sent to the main storage device 32 from the control unit 38 and stored therein, and the robot is restored.
Another restoring method is proposed in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 3-178789, wherein, in the case where the trouble of a robot is caused due to the parameter setting, the robot is restored by using voice of workers in the vicinity of the robot picked up by a microphone or using an image indicating the position or posture of the robot and the state of a control apparatus outputted from a television camera, thereby to eliminate the conventional method using telephone or facsimile etc.
In recent years, due to the progress of the technology of a robot, it has been difficult for a general user to accurately inform a service staff of parameter data according to the aforesaid failure diagnosis method using telephone or facsimile.
The trouble of a robot can be eliminated according to the aforesaid restoring method as disclosed in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 10-29181, wherein the history data and the parameters are stored in advance in the auxiliary storage device of the controller or the terminal memory of the remote operation terminal, and the parameter data is transferred to the main storage device of the controller at the time of occurrence of trouble thereby to intend to restore the controller. However, such a method becomes an obstacle at the time where a user changes the parameters of a robot so as to optimize the robot system. Further, in the aforesaid method, since there is no means for displaying the parameter having been changed, it takes much time for a service staff to determine the parameter data and so it is difficult to obtain advice in a short time.
The aforesaid method of diagnosing the state of a robot by using voice or image as disclosed in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 3-178789 requires a dedicated device such as an expensive camera or monitor etc. Further, in such a method, even if a service staff can refer the parameters from the monitored image, it is difficult to determine the parameters having been changed, and so it is difficult to give advice to a user in a short time.
In the aforesaid method, even if the cause of the trouble due to the parameters is specified, a user can not execute the operation procedure for eliminating the trouble in a manner as suggested by a service staff. Thus, there is a case that further trouble is caused.
Furthermore, the conventional robot control system has a function of counting operation hours of joint parts of the robot itself and the number of operations thereof. However, the conventional robot control system has a problem that, in the case of instructing the opening/closing of robot hands and instructing a XY table driven in association with the robot, for example, a failure caused by such parts which are operated by operation instruction dedicated for a user prepared by the user in this manner can not be predicted.